Elaine Edna Kaufman was a restaurateur whose Manhattan restaurant Elaine’s attracted a following among prominent actors and other celebrities died from emphysema and pulmonary hypertension.she was 81.[1]

(February 10, 1929 – December 3, 2010)

Life and career

Kaufman was born in Manhattan on February 10, 1929, and raised in Queens and later the Bronx. After a variety of jobs, including night cosmetician, she started in the restaurant business in 1959, joining Alfredo Viazzi—then her boyfriend—in running his recently-opened Greenwich Village restaurant Portofino.[1][2] Portofino was frequented by people in the downtown publishing business and Off-Broadway theater.
Four years later, after she and Viazzi split up, she bought a restaurant in the Upper East Side and Elaine’s was born. Despite the location—not popular at the time—many customers from Portofino followed her to the new spot. Over the years, Kaufman bought the entire building that housed the restaurant, as well as the building next door. The rental income subsidized the restaurant in lean years. Kaufman was designated a living landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy in 2003.
Kaufman died from emphysema and hypertension on December 3, 2010 at Lenox Hill Hospital, aged 81.[1]

(25 August 1935 – 3 December 2010)

Playing career

Club

Ramos Delgado started his playing career in 1956 with Lanús. He soon earned a move to River Plate where he played 172 games in seven seasons with the club.
In 1966, Ramos Delgado joined Banfield. After a short spell with the club, he moved to Brazil to play for Santos, where he played alongside Pelé, Coutinho and Pepe in the club’s golden years. He continued playing for Santos until the age of 38, making a total of 324 appearances and scoring one goal.
In the last year of his playing career, Delgado played for Portuguesa Santista, retiring at the age of 39.

Who is Jeffrey Scot Tweedy? The entertainment and music world knows as Jeff Tweedy , he is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy’s musical interests caused one of Farrar’s brothers to quit. The Plebes changed their name to The Primitives in 1984, and subsequently to Uncle Tupelo. Uncle Tupelo garnered enough support to earn a record deal and to tour nationally. After releasing four albums, the band broke up in 1994 because of conflicts between Tweedy and Farrar.
In 1994, Tweedy formed Wilco with John Stirratt, Max Johnston, and Ken Coomer. Wilco has released eight albums and found commercial success with their albums Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born, Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album). The band also released two collaboration albums with Billy Bragg and one with The Minus 5. Jeff Tweedy has been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, including Best Alternative Album for A Ghost Is Born. Tweedy has also participated in a number of side groups including Golden Smog and Loose Fur, has released a book of poems, and has released a DVD of solo performances. He was originally influenced by punk and country music, but has recently reflected more experimental themes in his music.
Tweedy has been afflicted with migraine headaches since childhood. Treatment for the migraines led to a dependency on painkillers, for which he underwent successful rehab in 2004. Tweedy also has been open about the fact that he suffers from clinical depression and panic attacks.

//

Early life

Jeff Tweedy was born in Belleville, Illinois on August 25, 1967 as the fourth child of Bob and Jo Ann Tweedy. Bob Tweedy worked at Alton & Southern Railroad in East St. Louis while Jo Ann was a kitchen designer. Jo Ann bought Tweedy his first guitar at age six, although he did not begin to play it seriously until he was eight. In 1981, when Tweedy was fourteen years old, he befriended Jay Farrar in an English class at Belleville Township High School West. All of the members of Farrar’s family enjoyed playing music, causing Farrar to already have knowledge of the musical elements of rock and roll. By this time, Tweedy was a fan of The Ramones and country music while Farrar enjoyed The Sex Pistols.Farrar was in a band called The Plebes with his brothers Wade and Dade, which Tweedy joined in order to qualify for a battle of the bands competition. Tweedy pushed The Plebes away from the rockabilly music that they had been playing, which caused Dade Farrar to leave the band. The band renamed themselves The Primitives in 1984, taking their name from a song by garage rock band The Groupies. Wade Farrar sang lead vocals and played harmonica, Jay Farrar played guitar, Tweedy played bass guitar, and Mike Heidorn played drums. In late 1986, the band decided to change their name to Uncle Tupelo, because a more popular British band was also using the name “The Primitives“. The Primitives went on hiatus in 1986 after Wade Farrar left the band to finish his engineering degree at Southern Illinois University. While waiting for Wade to return from campus, Jay, Tweedy, and Heidorn formed Uncle Tupelo.

Uncle Tupelo (1987-1994)

At his parents’ request, Jeff Tweedy enrolled at several universities, but dropped out of them so that he could concentrate on Uncle Tupelo. While moonlighting as a record store clerk at Euclid Records in St. Louis, Tweedy met Tony Margherita. After Margherita saw the band perform at an acoustic concert in 1988, he decided to become the band’s manager. The band began playing regular shows at Cicero’s basement bar in the Delmar Loop near Washington University with other bands playing in a similar style.Uncle Tupelo recorded a ten-track demo tape entitled Not Forever, Just For Now in 1989, attracting the attention of Giant/Rockville Records. The independent label signed the band, and Uncle Tupelo’s first album, No Depression, was released the next year. The title song, originally performed by the Carter Family, became strongly associated with the alternative country scene, and became the name of an influential alternative country periodical.
During times when Uncle Tupelo was not touring, Tweedy and Farrar played as Coffee Creek, a short-lived cover band with The Bottle Rockets‘ Brian Henneman and Mark Ortmann. Around this time, Tweedy began developing problems with alcohol abuse, leading to tensions between Tweedy and Farrar. While he never refused to play a gig, Tweedy was forced to sit out in place of Henneman at some performances. Tweedy quit drinking entirely after meeting future wife Sue Miller, although he replaced this habit with smoking marijuana. After releasing Still Feel Gone, the band formed a friendship with Peter Buck of R.E.M., who produced their third album March 16–20, 1992 for free. Uncle Tupelo left the Rockville label in favor of Sire Records (Warner) later in 1992 because Rockville refused to pay the band any royalties for their albums. After the signing, Max Johnston and John Stirratt joined the band as Mike Heidorn was replaced by Bill Belzer who was later replaced by Ken Coomer.The five-piece band recorded Anodyne, which sold over 150,000 copies and debuted at number 18 on the BillboardHeatseekers chart, but was the last album Uncle Tupelo released.

Breakup

In January 1994, Farrar called Tony Margherita to tell him that the band was breaking up, saying that he was not having any fun in the band anymore and was not getting along with Tweedy. Tweedy was enraged that Farrar decided to break up the band without notifying him, and this led to a series of harsh verbal exchanges. Farrar and Tweedy agreed to a final Uncle Tupelo tour, but the concerts were marred by the two not participating in each other’s songs. The band decided to play Tweedy’s “The Long Cut” on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which further distanced Farrar and Tweedy. Farrar began to assemble a new band named Son Volt with Mike Heidorn, bassist Jim Boquist, and his brother Dave Boquist. At the same time, Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco with Stirratt, Johnston, and Coomer.

Wilco (1995-present)

Wilco was signed to Reprise Records (Warner) and began recording A.M. almost as soon as the band was formed. After recording, Tweedy was introduced to Jay Bennett, who then joined the band. Also during this time, Tweedy quit smoking marijuana after a particularly bad experience with some cannabis brownies. A.M. did not fare as well commercially in comparison to Son Volt’s first album, only reaching number 27 on the Heatseekers chart while Son Volt’s debut Trace hit theBillboard 200. Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum invited Tweedy to join him in a supergroup named Golden Smog with Gary Louris and Marc Perlman of the Jayhawks, Kraig Johnson of Run Westy Run, and Noah Levy of The Honeydogs. Under the pseudonym Scott Summit, Tweedy released Down by the Old Mainstream with Golden Smog in 1996.
Tweedy and Wilco began to explore new styles and broke from the style of previous recordings on the seminal sprawling double album Being There in 1996. Tweedy did not write music for many of the songs ahead of time, and welcomed unexpected sounds into the recording. Wilco recorded nineteen songs for the double-CD album, and wanted the label to release it with a retail price comparable to a single-CD release. Being There was a commercial success, selling 300,000 copies and peaking in the top half of the Billboard 200. Reprise records invested $100,000 in the single “Outta Mind (Outtasite)”, but received little radio exposure. While on tour, Tweedy began to spend time reading books by William H. Gass, Henry Miller, and John Fante. As he read their books, Tweedy decided to place more of an emphasis on writing. Representatives in the A&R department of Reprise wanted a radio single from Summerteeth, and Wilco reluctantly agreed to a re-working of “Can’t Stand It“. The single was a top five hit on adult album alternative radio stations, but failed to cross over to a larger audience.

Before the release of Summerteeth, the daughter of the late folk legend Woody Guthrie contacted folk rock singer Billy Bragg, who in turn contacted Tweedy about recording an album of unreleased Woody Guthrie songs. Tweedy was indifferent to the idea of working with Bragg, but Jay Bennett’s enthusiasm about the idea convinced Tweedy to get the band involved in the project. As a result of Tweedy’s feelings on the political nature of some of the lyrics, Bragg recorded mostly political songs while Wilco recorded more neutral songs. Almost all of the songs that appeared on Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II were recorded over a six day period in December 1997. The first Mermaid Avenue album and a second Golden Smog album (Weird Tales) were released in 1998, Summerteeth was released in early 1999, and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II was released in 2000. Tweedy received his first Grammy nomination when Mermaid Avenue was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1999.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Jeff Tweedy was invited to play at Chicago’s Noise Pop festival, and was told that he could collaborate with a musician of his choosing. Tweedy chose Jim O’Rourke based on his fascination with O’Rourke’s Bad Timing album. O’Rourke offered to bring drummer Glenn Kotche to the festival, and the trio formed a side project named Loose Fur. The other band members of Wilco had written a number of songs for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but Tweedy was unsatisfied with them because he believed that the songs did not sound like the ones he played with Loose Fur. Tweedy became such a fan of Kotche’s playing style that he decided to dismiss Ken Coomer from the band in favor of Kotche. Tweedy had strong feelings about how songs should be sequenced, which clashed with Jay Bennett’s focus on the songs themselves. Because Bennett was ixing the album, this led to a series of arguments about how the album should sound between songs. Tweedy asked O’Rourke to remix several songs on the album that had been mixed by Bennett, which caused tensions within the band to escalate. The album was completed in June 2001, and Tweedy was insistent that it was in its final form. Tweedy also fired Jay Bennett around this time, believing (according to Jay Bennett) that Wilco should only have one core member. The band maintains that the firing of Jay Bennett was a collective decision.

Reprise Record’s parent company Time Warner merged with America Online in 2001, and the recording company was asked to cut costs. Howie Klein, the CEO of Reprise Records, considered Wilco to be one of the label’s core bands, but was offered a lucrative buy-out by AOL Time Warner. A&R representative Mio Vukovic was placed in charge of Wilco, and he believed that the album was not commercially viable. Vukovic called manager Tony Margherita and told him that Reprise was not interested in releasing the album, a point of view shared by the head of the A&R department, David Kahne. Kahne agreed to release Wilco from Reprise records under the condition that Wilco got to keep all legal entitlements to the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. After an article in the Chicago Tribune publicly described these managerial practices, CEO Gary Briggs quit. Shortly after leaving the label, Briggs remarked:

“

It [dropping Wilco from the label] should never have happened. One of the most embarrassing moments in my career at Warner Brothers was the day they let Wilco go. It broke my heart, and it told me that I no longer have a home there.

”

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was originally scheduled to be released on Reprise on September 11, 2001, prior to the band’s departure from Reprise. Seven days later, Tweedy decided that he would stream the entirety of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on Wilco’s official website. Over thirty record labels offered to release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot after the departure from Reprise was official. One of the thirty was Warner Brothers affiliate Nonesuch Records, who signed Wilco in November 2001. AOL Time Warner paid Wilco to make the album on Reprise, gave them the record for free, and then bought it back on the Nonesuch label. The album was released on April 23, 2002 to significant critical acclaim, including being named the best album of the year by The Village Voice.The album became the biggest hit of Jeff Tweedy’s career and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 500,000 copies.

A Ghost Is Born and side projects

Scott McCaughey contacted Tweedy about recording an album together for a The Minus 5 release. They scheduled a meeting for September 11, 2001, but were reluctant to enter the recording studio after the terrorist attacks. At night, McCaughey and Tweedy decided to begin recording songs as a way to calm down. A few more tracks were later added to the album with the rest of Wilco, and it was released with the name Down with Wilco in 2003.

In November 2003, Wilco began recording a fifth studio album. Unlike their previous albums, all of the songs were originally performed in the studio and then later adapted for playing at concerts. Wilco released A Ghost Is Born on June 22, 2004, and it attained a top ten peak on the Billboard 200. The album was awarded with Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package in 2005. A few weeks before the album’s release, Tweedy released a book of forty-three poems entitled Adult Head on Zoo Press. The following year, the band released their first live album, a two-disc set entitled Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, recorded at The Vic Theater. Wilco recorded twelve tracks for a sixth studio album entitled Sky Blue Sky, which was released on May 15, 2007. Sky Blue Sky debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, the band’s highest debut yet. It sold over 87,000 copies in its first week of release.Jeff Tweedy has performed several solo tours, on which he typically plays acoustic music. He also does The Song Simple Twist of Fate on the Soundtrack to I’m Not There. On October 24, 2006 Nonesuch Records released Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest, a live DVD by Tweedy. The disc includes performances and conversations gathered over five nights on Tweedy’s February 2006 solo acoustic tour, with footage from concerts at Seattle’s Moore Theater, Portland’s Crystal Ballroom, Eugene’s McDonald Theatre, Arcata’s Humboldt State University, and The Fillmore in San Francisco. The DVD was directed by Christoph Green and Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, the creators of the documentary series Burn to Shine.

Musical style

Jeff Tweedy’s musical style has varied over his music career. Tweedy’s vocal style is considered nasal, emotional, and scratchy, and has been compared to that of Neil Young. His first exposure to music was through gramophone records that his siblings left behind when they attended college, and he particularly liked The Beatles‘ White Album. Tweedy would frequently read issues of magazines such as Rolling Stone, and began to purchase punk rock albums such as The Clash‘s London Calling and X‘s Wild Gift. Belleville crowds did not respond well to punk music, so while Tweedy was a member of The Primitives they played covers of country songs at much faster tempos. When Uncle Tupelo formed, the band began composing its own songs influenced by Jason & the Scorchers and The Minutemen. Wilco’s first album shared many musical similarities with the four previous Uncle Tupelo albums, but on Being There, Tweedy began introducing more experimental themes into his music. He claims that he wanted to rebel against the belief spread by the No Depression magazine that Wilco was primarily a country band. One of the most influential albums for Tweedy was Bad Timing by Jim O’Rourke, which helped to inspire Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. Tweedy uses a 1957 Gibson J-45, as well as Fender Jazzmasters, Telecasters and Gibson SGs. He also has been known to use a Breedlove 000.

Personal life

Tweedy has been prone to chronic migraines throughout his entire life, forcing him to miss forty days of elementary school in one year. These chronic migraines caused Tweedy to become dependent on painkillers. While he attempted to regulate his use of painkillers, he was never able to stop their use for more than five weeks. Tweedy attributes this to comorbidity with major depressive disorder and severe panic attacks. In 2004, he entered a dual diagnosis rehabilitation clinic in order to receive treatment for an addiction to prescription painkillers. Tweedy quit smoking the next year; John Stirratt claimed afterward that this significantly improved the focus of the band.

Tweedy is married to former talent booking agent Sue Miller. Tweedy first met Miller when he was trying to get Uncle Tupelo booked at Cubby Bear, where Miller worked. Miller opened a club in Chicago named Lounge Ax in 1989, and booked Uncle Tupelo for sixteen shows over four years. Miller and Tweedy began dating in 1991 and they were married on August 9, 1995. The Tweedys have two children: Spencer Tweedy (born December 16, 1995) and Sam Tweedy (born December 22, 1999). Spencer has been the drummer for pre-teen rock band The Blisters, not to be confused with Chicago powerpop band The Blissters, since December 2003. has also recently formed a new band called Tully Monster with friends Hayden Holbert and Henry Mosher. They go to a Montessori School in Chicago,IL. The band has played major events such as Lollapalooza, which Jeff and Wilco headlined, and also at the opening of Millennium Park in Chicago. On December 16, 2008 Spencer Tweedy joined Wilco on stage at Madison Square Garden to play drums on their song “The Late Greats,” while opening for Neil Young. Before the song, the entire crowd sang Happy Birthday to Spencer Tweedy, as it was his 13th birthday.

In early May 2009, former Wilco member Jay Bennett sued Tweedy for breach of contract. Bennett died later that month of an apparent accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl.

We don’t seem to have a problem splurging on our children when they do something fantastic or on a best friend or someone who has helped us out a great deal. But how often do we take the time or money or effort to pour it on for the one we are married to?
Some couples are able to splurge on each other all the time. But having always lived on a pastor’s salary, we’ve never been able to splurge regularly on each other, especially when it comes to spending money. Thankfully, splurging on each other doesn’t have to take a lot of money. You can splurge by being creative and working with what you have. That’s what Hugh did the other night during another one of those “tight budget” weeks.
We were getting ready to watch a movie. Hugh likes eating ice cream while watching movies. But we had only enough for one of us. I conceded. I didn’t need it anyway. And really, I was fine going without the extra calories. But Hugh, to my surprise, got an idea. He told me to get the movie ready and not come into the kitchen. In the meantime he whipped up a treat for me—a banana split complete with the remaining ice cream, slices of our last banana on either side of the dish, some chocolate syrup and some blueberries. It was creative. It was a sacrifice (because he went without any that night) and it was a splurge. Banana splits never tasted so good!
Splurging on the one you love implies going the extra mile, whether it be effort-wise, financially, sacrificially or with your time. You are giving beyond what you normally would because the one you love is priceless.
God set the splurging model for us, when He lavishly loved us by sending us His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins. In First John 3:1 we read of how God splurged on us: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! ” He set the splurging bar rather high when He spared no expense in sending His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins. We’re also told in the Bible that God is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20). That is not a God who holds out on us. That’s a God who splurges to show just how “wide and long and high and deep” His love is for us (Ephesians 3:18) If God lavishes that kind of love on us daily, can you splurge a little to show the extent of your love for each other?
To splurge on each other does not mean heaping material blessings on your spouse, although you might take that approach once in a great while. Here are seven ways you can splurge on each other when money is tight:

1.Save it Up –– Rich and Ashley save their spare change in a jar all throughout the year. Then every Valentine’s Day they take the entire contents of the jar and spend it on a special date for the two of them. This past year, they had more than $100 in the jar and Ashley thought about only spending part of it on dinner and using the rest on something the family might need. But Rich insisted that was their splurge money and so they had dinner that night at a very expensive restaurant they wouldn’t ordinarily have been able to visit. So now, each year, they can truly splurge on Valentine’s Day.

2.Dole it Out — Bill was a husband who loved to splurge on his wife, June. Bill and June didn’t have a lot of money in their 49 years together as they raised three children in a small, rural town. But Bill knew how to spoil his wife with love, attention and praise. Today, their children will tell you “Dad spoiled mom. He’d do anything and everything for her.” That is the legacy Bill left when he passed away after 49 years of marriage to his beloved, June. Are you leaving a legacy of being one who splurged on your spouse with love, attention and praise?

3.Write it Out — Remember what it was like to receive a love letter? There’s nothing quite like it. Yes, firing off a text from your phone is easier, but a hand-written letter is much more personal. There’s something about seeing your spouse’s own handwriting and being able to keep that slip of paper. Write out what is on your heart. If you haven’t said it in awhile, it should be said about now, don’t you think?

4. Plan it Out — Sometimes the best gift we can give our spouse is our time. Are you a couple that is often over-scheduled? Take some intentional time off just to be with each other. Or better yet, plan a date and take your spouse as a surprise. It could be as simple as lunch out and a walk in the park to reconnect. If you’re the busy type, taking time for the one you love is a splurge that may be much appreciated.

5. Whip it up — It’s been said that the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. But cooking for your wife might melt her heart as well. Plan an evening to whip up your spouse’s favorite dish or dessert. It’s a wonderful way to say: “You were worth the time this took to prepare.”

6. Give it Up — How long has it been since your husband or wife had a day off to themselves? Try giving up something you need to do to offer your spouse some much needed time to relax or work on a project they’ve really wanted to complete. Take the kids for an evening or take back the “to do” list on a Saturday and say “this one’s yours…do whatever you want to do and enjoy it as a gift from me.”

7. Pour it On — There’s nothing like extending grace when your spouse deserved a lecture instead. I’ll never forget the day I opened up another notice by mail of a red-light traffic violation. The others had just been cleared from my record. My face went white and my husband, upon realizing what it was, shook his head in resignation and handed over a rebate check he had just endorsed which would now be applied to my latest ticket! I stood there stunned at his composure, and humbled. I knew that my reaction toward him (if he had been the one receiving the fine) wouldn’t have been nearly as gracious as his toward me. I learned that day what it really means to receive undeserved kindness.

To splurge on each other is sometimes to show God’s incredible love toward your spouse, as He has shown it to you. You can lavish each other with love, patience, kindness, gentleness, trust, forgiveness, and understanding. To cultivate a closer connection between the two of you, splurge on each other – and love each other – as God loves you.
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Online court records show Schuler, of Springboro, faces 16 felony counts of sexual battery involving a student and three misdemeanor counts of providing alcohol to someone who is underage.

Schuler has been a teacher and athletic trainer at a high school in Mason since 2000 and has been on paid leave since Jan. 18, the week after an anonymous tip triggered the school’s investigation, the newspaper said.

Chief assistant Warren County prosecutor Bruce McGary said investigators believe Schuler had sexual contact with male students five times last year between August and December, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer, which reports some of the students were football players.

Mason principal Mindy McCarty-Stewart did not respond to an Associated Press message seeking comment but told the Enquirer that Schuler had contact with students as an athletic trainer for the high school sports teams.

McGary said none of the alleged incidents occurred on school grounds.

Schuler turned herself in Friday and remained in jail Saturday, and her arraignment is set for this month.

The board of education on Tuesday will act on a recommendation to fire Schuler, Mason superintendent Kevin Bright said.

Schuler earned a bachelor’s in education from Wright State University in 2000, according to the newspaper.

Ronald Edward Santo[1] was an American Major League Baseball player and long-time radio announcer. A power-hitting third baseman, he was a nine-time All-Star in a career that spanned from 1960 to 1974, mainly for the Chicago Cubs died from complications from diabetes and bladder cancer he was , 70. Deft defensively as well, Santo won five Gold Gloves at his position, proving a highly productive player despite suffering from diabetes. Carefully concealing the condition for most of his career, it eventually necessitated the amputation of the lower half of his right leg.[2]
While initially showing little support for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Santo’s standing among baseball enthusiasts and sabermetricians has gradually increased over time. He is widely regarded today as one of the best ballplayers not to have been admitted to the Hall.[3]

(February 25, 1940 – December 3, 2010)

Major League career

Santo was signed as a free agent by the Chicago Cubs in 1959, and made his debut on June 26, 1960.[4][5] In 1961 he set a Cubs record with 41 double plays at third base, breaking the previous mark of 33 set by Bernie Friberg in 1923. In 1962 he led the National League in assists for the first time with 332, setting the team record for assists at third base, breaking the mark of 323 set by Randy Jackson in 1951. Santo continued to lead the National League in assists every year through 1968, breaking Ned Williamson‘s major league record of leading the league six times; Brooks Robinson went on to lead the American League eight times. Mike Schmidt eventually tied Santo’s National League mark of seven. In 1963 Santo broke the modern National League record with 374 assists at third base, passing Tommy Leach‘s 1904 mark of 371. In 1966, he set the all-time league record with 391, the previous record being Billy Shindle‘s 382 in 1892; his total was 99 higher than that of league runner-up Ken Boyer. Santo broke his own record in 1967 with 393 assists,[6] which remained the National League record until Schmidt posted 404 in 1974. He also finished fourth in the 1967 National League Most Valuable Player Award voting results.[7] Santo’s assist totals from 1963 through 1968 were the sixth highest by an National League third baseman between 1905 and 1973. He also led the National League in putouts every year from 1962 through 1967 and again in 1969, tying the league record shared by Pie Traynor and Willie Jones in leading the league seven times;[8]Tim Wallach later tied the mark as well.
Santo was deeply saddened by the loss of teammate Ken Hubbs, the Cubs second baseman, killed in a plane crash just prior to the 1964 season. Santo is interviewed by Tom Harmon, narrator of the film A Glimpse of Greatness–The Story of Ken Hubbs, in which Santo pays the highest respects to the young Hubbs.[citation needed]

Heel Click

During the 1969 season, Santo became known for performing a heel click after a game on June 22, 1969, against the Montreal Expos.[2][6] Going into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Expos were leading 6-3. With one out, second basemanPaul Popovich hit a single, and moved up to second base after another single by left fielderBilly Williams. Although Santo grounded out for the second out, Popovich and Williams each moved up a base. Then a future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, first basemanErnie Banks, singled to bring home Williams and Popovich and bring the Cubs within a run. Rick Bladt substituted as a pinch-runner for Banks. That set it up for Cubs right fielderJim Hickman, who hit a two-run walk-off home run to win the game, 7-6.[12] When Hickman reached home plate, Santo was so excited that after congratulating him by bear hugging and pounding him on his head, Santo ran down the third base line and jumped three times, clicking his heels on each jump.[2][6]
The next day, Santo walked into managerLeo Durocher‘s office; Durocher asked him to keep clicking his heels whenever the Cubs won at Wrigley Field to motivate the team. Santo continued this after every home win. The stunt antagonized opponents and served to make the team a target for payback in the final weeks of the season. When the Cubs began their September swoon, which took place shortly after Santo called out rookie teammate Don Young in public after a loss against the Mets in New York, he discontinued the heel click routine suddenly. His final “click” was performed on September 2, the last Cub home victory while still in first place. During and after the epic collapse, Santo never again performed the heel click, as critics decried the routine for its arrogance and overconfidence, which many believe was at the root of the late fade.[citation needed] In his book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, baseball historian Bill James cited Durocher’s method of using his regular players everyday without any rest days as a factor in the Cubs’ collapse.[13]

Trade Request

Santo became the first player to invoke the ten-and-five rule under the collective bargaining agreement signed after the 1972 Major League Baseball strike (the rule allows players with 10 years’ service, the last five with the same team, to decline any trade).[6] The Cubs had agreed upon a deal to send Santo to the California Angels; the ballclub would have received in return two young pitchers: Andy Hassler, who went on to have a middling career as a reliever/spot starter, and Bruce Heinbechner, a very highly-regarded left-handed pitching prospect. Santo didn’t want to play on the West Coast and vetoed the deal.
The Cubs still wanted to trade Santo, and since his preference was to stay in Chicago, they worked out a deal with the White Sox, acquiring catcherSteve Swisher, and three young pitchers: Jim Kremmel, Ken Frailing, and one of Santo’s future co-broadcasters, Steve Stone.[5] The White Sox already had a third baseman, Bill Melton, so Santo was relegated mostly to designated hitter duty, which he hated. He wanted to play in the field, but White Sox manager Chuck Tanner wouldn’t bench Melton (who had had a couple of 30 home run seasons for them), so he unsuccessfully tried Santo at second base. Finishing 1974 with a .221 batting average and 5 home runs, Santo retired from baseball at the age of 34.[4]

Legacy

Santo was a nine-time National League All-Star, and led the league in walks four times, in on base percentage twice and in triples once.[4][8] An All-Star-caliber player at Wrigley Field and fairly ordinary on the road, he hit for a .300 average and hit 30 home runs four times each,[6] and is the only third baseman in major league history to post eight consecutive seasons with 90 RBI (1963–1970).[4][8] The winner of five consecutive Gold Glove Awards for fielding excellence (1964–1968),[14] he set or tied National League records by leading the league’s third basemen in total chances eight times, in games, putouts and assists seven times each, and in double plays six times.[6][8] From 1966 to 1974 he held the National League record for assists in a single season. He also set National League records for career assists (4,532), total chances (6,777) and double plays (389) at third base, all of which were eventually broken by Mike Schmidt between 1986 and 1988; his National League total of 2,102 games at third base fell 52 short of Eddie Mathews‘ league record, and he then ranked sixth in National League history in putouts (1,930) and ninth in fielding percentage (.954).
Santo led the league in double plays six times (1961, ’64, ’66–’68, ’71), tying the major league record held by Heinie Groh;[8] Schmidt also later tied this record. He led the National League in total chances every season from 1961 through 1968.[8] He appeared at third base in every Cubs game from April 19, 1964 through May 31, 1966, establishing a league record with 364 consecutive games at the position;[6][8] his 164 games at third base in 1965 remain the major league record.
He was the second player at his position to hit 300 (exactly 342) career home runs, joining Eddie Mathews, and also ended his career ranking second to Mathews among third basemen in slugging average (.464) and third in runs batted in (1,331), total bases (3,779) and walks (1,108). Santo broke Mathews’ National League record of 369 career double plays at third base in 1972, and in 1973 he broke Mathews’ league records of 4,284 assists and 6,606 total chances. Schmidt passed Santo’s record for double plays in 1986, his record for assists in 1987, and his mark for total chances in 1988. During his 14-season run with the Cubs, Santo hit 337 home runs, then the eighth most by a National League right-handed hitter; his 1,071 career walks with the Cubs remain the team record for a right-handed hitter. He was the first third baseman to hit 300 home runs and win five Gold Gloves, a feat since matched only by Schmidt.
Santo became the first player in major league history to wear a batting helmet with protective ear flaps, when in 1966, in the midst of trying to break the Cubs’ modern consecutive-game hitting streak record of 27 games (set by Hack Wilson in 1929), Santo was sidelined for nearly two weeks following a pitch thrown by the Mets’ Jack Fisher (beaning) that fractured his cheekbone and ended his consecutive playing streak. When he returned (and broke the hitting record with a 28-game streak[6]) he was wearing an improvised ear flap on his batting helmet in order to protect the injury; ear flaps have since become standard equipment on batting helmets.
On September 28, 2003, Santo’s jersey #10 was retired by the Cubs organization, making him the third player so honored behind his teammates Ernie Banks (#14) and Billy Williams (#26).[15] Other prominent Cubs had worn #10 after Santo’s retirement, notably Dave Kingman and Leon Durham; the most recent wearer had been interim manager Bruce Kimm, just the previous year. In April 2004, Santo was inducted into the inaugural class of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (Washington’s high school athletics league) Hall of Fame as a graduate of Seattle’s Franklin High School.[16] About a month after Santo’s death, Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts announced that Santo would be honored by the Cubs in the 2011 season. Beginning in Spring Training, & continuing through the end of the season, the Cubs will wear a patch on the sleeve of their jersey with the number 10 on it. Also in his honor, a statue will be unveiled outside of Wrigley Field on August 10, before the game vs. the Washington Nationals.

Hall of Fame qualifications

When Santo first became eligible for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, he was named on less than 4 percent of all ballots cast, resulting in his removal from the ballot in subsequent years; he was one of several players re-added to the ballot in 1985 following widespread complaints about overlooked candidates, with the remainder of their 15 years of eligibility restored even if this extended beyond the usual limit of 20 years after their last season. After receiving 13 percent of the vote in the 1985 election, his vote totals increased in 10 of the next 13 years until he received 43 percent of the vote in his final year on the 1998 ballot, finishing third in the voting behind electee Don Sutton and 2000 inductee Tony Perez. Following revamped voting procedures for the Veterans Committee, which elects players retired for over 20 years, Santo finished third in 2003, tied for first in 2005, and again finished first in voting for the 2007 and 2009 inductions, but fell short of the required number of votes each year. Following further major changes to the Veterans Committee voting process announced in 2010, Santo’s next opportunity for admission will come in voting for the induction class of 2012.
Although Santo has become a widely supported candidate for selection, his initial poor showing in balloting has been attributed to various factors, including a longtime tendency of Hall voters to overlook third basemen; at the time Santo retired, only three of the over 120 players elected were third basemen.[citation needed] Also, the fact that Santo’s best years occurred in the 1960s, when offensive statistics were relatively lower than in many other eras (due to an enlarged strike zone and raised pitcher’s mounds, among other things), has been cited as a factor that has led voters to perhaps overlook him.[17][18] Another possible reason that has been suggested is that voters have not focused sufficiently on Santo’s high walk totals and defense. These aspects of play are perhaps more valued by sabermetrics–newer methods of evaluating a baseball player’s productivity—than they have been by Hall of Fame voters in the past. For example, Santo’s career adjusted on-base plus slugging (OPS+)—the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and slugging percentage, adjusted for the park and league in which he played, and expressed as a percentage of the league average—would rank him exactly in the middle of the ten major league third basemen currently in the Hall of Fame.[18][19]
One argument that has been raised against Santo’s Hall of Fame candidacy is that his batting statistics, over the course of his career, were significantly better at home than on the road. He hit 216 of his 342 home runs at home, and only 126 on the road.[20] His career batting average at home was .296, versus .257 on the road.[20] However, several players elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America, such as Carl Yastrzemski, Wade Boggs, Jim Rice and Kirby Puckett, batted significantly better in their home parks than they did on the road.[21][22][23][24] Hall of Famers with a significant differential between their home numbers and road numbers in terms of home runs include Mel Ott (323 homers at home and 188 on the road), Frank Robinson (321 at home, 265 on the road), Jimmie Foxx (299 at home, 235 on the road) and Hank Greenberg (205 at home, 126 on the road).[25][26][27][28] Others have also commented that two Cubs who were in their prime during Santo’s prime years have already been honored by the Hall of Fame (Ferguson Jenkins and Billy Williams), and the team also featured a third Hall of Famer, Ernie Banks, who was arguably past his prime, yet the team never won a pennant. However, the late 1960s Cubs were far from the only team in baseball history with multiple Hall of Famers that did not win a pennant or a World Series.
Santo also fell short of such traditional standards of Hall election as 3,000 hits and 500 home runs; however, by the time his career ended, only two third basemen (Brooks Robinson and Lave Cross) had even collected 2,500 hits, and only one (Eddie Mathews) had reached the 500-home run plateau.[29][30][31][32]Bill James, a notable statistical guru who has ranked Santo among the 100 greatest players of all time (sixth among third basemen), believes his election to the Hall of Fame is long overdue.
Although disappointed at being bypassed, on the day his jersey number was retired by the Cubs, the ever-optimistic and emotional “old Cub” told the cheering Wrigley Field crowd, “This is my Hall of Fame!”[8][33] During Ryne Sandberg‘s Hall of Fame acceptance speech in 2005, he echoed his support for Santo’s selection, saying, “…for what it’s worth, Ron Santo just gained one more vote from the Veterans Committee.”[34] On April 19, 2007, the Illinois House of Representatives adopted HB 109 (Cross), urging the Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame to elect Ron Santo to the Baseball Hall of Fame. [35]

Struggle with diabetes

In the early years of his playing career, he carefully concealed the fact that he had type 1 diabetes. He feared that if this information were to be known, he would be forced into retirement. Because the methods of regulating diabetes in the 1960s and 1970s were not as advanced as they are today, Santo gauged his blood sugar levels based on his moods.[37] If he felt his blood sugar was low, he would snack on a candy bar in the clubhouse.[37]
As part of the publicity surrounding “Ron Santo Day” at Wrigley Field on August 28, 1971, he revealed his struggle with diabetes. He was diagnosed with this disease at the age of 18, and was given a life expectancy of 25 years. Santo had both his legs amputated below the knee as a result of his diabetes: the right in 2001 and the left in 2002. Santo shared a bond in this respect with 2008 Cub rookie Sam Fuld, who also suffers from type 1 diabetes.[38] In 2004 Santo and his battle against diabetes were the subject of a documentary, This Old Cub. The film was written, co-produced and directed by Santo’s son Jeff.

Charities

Santo endorsed the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s annual Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes in Chicago from 1974 until his death, and raised over $60 million for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). In 2002, Santo was named the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s “Person of the Year”.[33] Santo also inspired Bill Holden to walk 2,100 miles from Arizona to Chicago, to raise $250,000 for diabetes research.

Death

Santo died at 12:40 a.m. on December 3, 2010[1] in a Scottsdale, Arizona, hospital due to complications from bladder cancer and diabetes. (Many media outlets reported the date as “the night of the 2nd” or “overnight”.) Santo lapsed into a coma on December 1 and died the next night.[39][40][41][42]